Nayagarh

Niranjan Patnaik Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is the foremost problem of Orissa and the most daunting challenge for CM Naveen Patnaik , whose 12-year tenure has witnessed a rapid rise in intensity and spread of Maoist insurgency in the state. Twentyfour of the 30 districts are now affected. Orissa has become a refuge for Maoist cadres who freely migrate to neighbouring regions. In many of the troubled territories, especially in...

BHUBANESWAR: In a major achievement for Odisha police , top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda has been arrested, prompting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to appeal to naxals to eschew violence and join the mainstream. "The most wanted Maoist Sabyasachi Panda was arrested by police last night from Berhampur. The arrest of Panda who carried a high reward on his head is a big achievement of Odisha Police," Patnaik announced in the assembly today. ...

BHUBANESHWAR: Nine days after Maoists' attacked armouries and police stations in Nayagarh district, Orissa government on Sunday expressed its readiness to hold talks with the ultras if they gave up arms and shunned violence. "My government is always prepared for dialogue with the naxalites, but first they should give up arms and the path of violence," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters after reviewing the ongoing combing operation against Maoists' at a high-level meeting...

BHUBANESWAR: Twenty Maoists were gunned down during a combing operation by security forces in the border areas of Nayagarh, Ganjam and Kandhamal districts of Orissa on Sunday. Fierce gun battles between security personnel and Maoists rebels have been going on since Saturday in several areas. Three jawans of the special operation group were also killed in the operation being conducted since Saturday after the Maoists attacked police establishments in Nayagarh on Friday night,...

BHUBANESWAR: Total voter turn-out in the two-phased simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha was 74 per cent against 65.3 per cent polling in last general elections in 2009. While the turn-out in the second and last phase polling held yesterday was 73.4 per cent, 75 per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise in first phase elections on April 10, said Odisha's Chief Electoral Officer Mona Sharma said today....

BHUBANESWAR: An estimated 58 per cent voters exercised their franchise till 4.30 PM for the simultaneous second and last phase of the elections to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 assembly constituencies in Odisha today. Nayagarh district recorded the highest polling of 62 per cent so far, followed by Keonjhar with 60 per cent and the lowest was over 37 per cent in Khurda district, official sources said. Among early bird voters were Assam Governor J B Patnaik and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen...

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the recent success of joint operations against Naxalite hideouts in Bastar by Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra police ? the twin strikes by Andhra-Chhattisgarh and Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra helped bust at least four major extremist camps and 'neutralised' 17 Maoists ? the Centre is now pushing the states to intensify inter-state crackdownns. At the meeting of the special taskforce on Left-wing extremism held in Lucknow on March 18, the Centre praised...

BHUBANESHWAR: The Congress party's candidate from Odisha's prestigious Puri parliamentary seat is a political novice, but with a strong party lineage. Sucharita Mohanty is the youngest of late freedom fighter and Congress stalwart Braja Mohan Mohanty's seven children. The state's ruling Biju Janata Dal has yet to name its candidate for the seat that it won hands down in 2009, but sitting MP Pinaki Misra is likely to be its...

BERHAMPUR (ODISHA): The abduction of two Italians is the first such incident in Odisha's Kandhamal district involving foreigners, but the district has witnessed an alarming spurt in extremist violence in the last four years. Covered by dense forest and being a mountainous terrain, the tribal-dominated district has served as a safe haven and hide-out for extremists for sometime, an intelligence official said. The district had not...

BHUBANESWAR: Security across Orissa was tightened on Saturday following the killing of 14 police personnel by Naxalites, who also looted weapons from the district armoury in Nayagarh, police said. Security was beefed up at important government buildings, including the state assembly, where the budget session was in progress and the secretariat building, they said. Vehicles were thoroughly checked in the state capital and adjoining Cuttack city where police maintained...

BHUBANESWAR: Realising that a large number of forest department officials were exposed to attacks in Maoist-affected districts, Orissa government on Wednesday decided to provide insurance cover to them in a bid to win their confidence, official sources said. "The forest personnel in Naxalite-hit areas have in recent past been exposed to extremist attacks," an official said adding that the government realised this following February 15 Maoist mahyem at Nayagarh and...

BHUBANESHWAR: The Congress party's candidate from Odisha's prestigious Puri parliamentary seat is a political novice, but with a strong party lineage. Sucharita Mohanty is the youngest of late freedom fighter and Congress stalwart Braja Mohan Mohanty's seven children. The state's ruling Biju Janata Dal has yet to name its candidate for the seat that it won hands down in 2009, but sitting MP Pinaki Misra is likely to be its nominee this...

Niranjan Patnaik Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is the foremost problem of Orissa and the most daunting challenge for CM Naveen Patnaik , whose 12-year tenure has witnessed a rapid rise in intensity and spread of Maoist insurgency in the state. Twentyfour of the 30 districts are now affected. Orissa has become a refuge for Maoist cadres who freely migrate to neighbouring regions. In many of the troubled territories,...

BERHAMPUR (ODISHA): The abduction of two Italians is the first such incident in Odisha's Kandhamal district involving foreigners, but the district has witnessed an alarming spurt in extremist violence in the last four years. Covered by dense forest and being a mountainous terrain, the tribal-dominated district has served as a safe haven and hide-out for extremists for sometime, an intelligence official said. The district had not witnessed any violence or...

BHUBANESWAR: Much like top Maoists Kobad Ghandy and Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, who went to elite institutions like the Doon school and REC Warangal, Sabyasachi Panda, Orissa's most dreaded Maoist, too comes from a privileged background: His father, Ramesh Chandra, a three-term CPM MLA, was, at the time of his death in 2004, Biju Janata Dalchief in Nayagarh. The Pandas are Brahmins and Sabyasachi a staunch Maoist. His political background gives him the idiom and access to tribals,...

BHUBANESWAR: In a major breakthrough, the police in Bhubaneswar on Friday reportedly arrested Subhashree Panda alias Mili, wife of the most wanted Maoist leader of Orissa, Sabyasachi Panda. However, no police officer is willing to be quoted to confirm her arrest. Mili, married to the dreaded Maoist leader since 1997, is believed to an active member of the Vamsadhara unit of the outlawed CPI (Maoist). She is understood to be in charge of fund raising for the...

BHUBANESWAR: In a major achievement for Odisha police , top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda has been arrested, prompting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to appeal to naxals to eschew violence and join the mainstream. "The most wanted Maoist Sabyasachi Panda was arrested by police last night from Berhampur. The arrest of Panda who carried a high reward on his head is a big achievement of Odisha Police," Patnaik announced in the assembly today. ...

NEW DELHI: Even as the special operation to nab Maoists involved in the Nayagarh attack entered its 4th day on Tuesday, the Centre rushed four more companies of CRPF ? roughly 400 personnel ? to Orissa as reinforcements. One more company of the armed police of another state may join the operations, a Union home ministry official said here on Tuesday. In Orissa, the joint operation by state police, special operations group (SOG), CRPF and...

Strap: In 261 BC Emperor Ashoka invaded Kalinga, an event that was a watershed in world history. Thereafter, Orissa has been attacked innumerable times by aspiring emperors, kings and ganglords, but has never lost its identity. In this concluding part of the ET series on Terror in the eastern states, Nageshwar Patnaik takes a look at Orissa's latest factory-fresh tormentors, the Maoists, who threaten to challenge the sovereignty of the state... Back in 1931, a young Mao Zedong stole into...

BHUBANESWAR: Realising that a large number of forest department officials were exposed to attacks in Maoist-affected districts, Orissa government on Wednesday decided to provide insurance cover to them in a bid to win their confidence, official sources said. "The forest personnel in Naxalite-hit areas have in recent past been exposed to extremist attacks," an official said adding that the government realised this following February 15 Maoist mahyem at...